Pregnant woman of the year

Today I am 34 weeks and 5 days pregnant. It has been about 3 weeks since my doctor said he guessed I'd have a week at the most. As uncomfortable as this stage of pregnancy has become for me, I pretty much feel like pregnant woman OF THE YEAR.

However, yesterday afternoon I had some spotting and cramping. Not as all dissimilar to how I felt when I went into labour with Lily.

Needless to say I was NOT in labour. Who writes a blog while in labour? But this is what Dr Cattnach had to say.

Our son has taken up his home right in my pelvis, head down, THANK GOD. My stitch has begun pulling out and I can expect spotting and cramping for the rest of the time I am pregnant, whether it is three days or three weeks. He could remove the stitch now, but he didn't want to. Doing that would either do nothing at all or speed things up. He doesn't want to speed things up, because while our son would indeed be very healthy at this gestation, his best chance of success in school, sport, music and pretty much any pursuit he cares to take on is to be born at 38 weeks+ and at least 3 kilos. He also said that the children who statsically do the best academically and so on are are those born at 40 weeks+ and at least 4 kilos. I wanted to tell him to stick his imaginary giant, over due baby up his butt, academic success and all.

I also wanted to laugh at him when he quickly added this didn't mean there was anything wrong with Lily. I wanted to laugh because my child is probably the clumsiest, most gumby child I have ever met. She must fall over or off something at least once a day. Bob has long since given up any dreams he had of her playing for Australia in women's soccer. She IS smart, pretty and stubborn though, so there's still quite a lot she can do with her life, despite her daddy's disappointment. Bob also begged his unborn son to stay in until 38 weeks so he can be a pro footballer. Yeah, I thought, rugby league. (Just joking. As long as they don't turn out white supremicists or something equally as horrifying, we'll be happy and proud as long as they are happy.)

So, at 37 weeks, my stich will officially be cut and until then, we're still playing the anxious waiting game.

Here's to 9 months of pregnancy!

33 Weeks and 1 Day

Today I am offically one whole week more pregnant than I have ever been!

You'd think I'd be over the moon, but I'm actually feeling a lot like I imagine people of 38 weeks+ must feel.

WHEN is this baby coming?

This slightly selfish insanity is not completely unfounded. At my last appointment with Dt Cattanach, a week ago on this Thursday just gone, he said that, as an educated guess, he'd give me about a week before I went into labour. At the most, he guessed I'd have a baby by 34 weeks. This guess was based on the fact that my stitch has long given up doing it's job and my cervix no longer exists in terms of length. The only reason the baby was still in was that by some twist of engineering in my hopelessly unmaternal body, I was completely undilated.

Seeing as at my 31+1 appointment with Lily, he warned me she wasn't far off as she was engaged and my cervix had seemingtly given up doing it's job, I fully believed my son would be here by today.

And Thursday did not pass uneventfully. After 36 hours of abdominal cramps, losing some stuff that looked like it was probably part of my mucous plug and nausea and dizziness enough to have be curled up in bed, a moaning wreck, Grandma demanded I ring the pregnancy assessment unit at the Mater. They told me to come in. An hour and half after my arrival, when no measurable changes were detected, they sent me home, saying that Dr Cattanach insisted "any day now".

So three days later, I am still anxiously awaiting my son.

His bassinet sits, dressed with freshly washed and ironed linen and complete with AngelCare movement monitor. His clothes, socks, hats and singlets sit neatly folded in size organised piles. He has nappies and dummies. I have sterilized the breast pump and it sits awaiting use in the hospital bag, which has been packed for over a week now. We even have THREE gorgeous premmie outfits, thanks to generous friends, which is three more than we had when we embarked on the scary SCN journey with Lily. We even have a hat, which in prem sizes is like having hen's teeth. Bob keeps clean clothes right beside the bed, ready to leap into action. Today we are getting the bouncy chair and bath from the storage unit so they can be cleaned. We are also buying fresh batteries for the swing.

We are so ready.

SO...... WHEN is this baby coming?